Man City v Wolves: Guardiola can cook up another win at the expense of Wolves

Man City v Wolves: Guardiola can cook up another win at the expense of Wolves

Manchester City are looking for their 21st straight victory on Tuesday night against Wolves, and Alan Dudman won't be opposing Pep Guardiola's team....

The Blumenthal of football continues to set the standard

How do you stop Heston Blumenthal? Answer: take his egg whisk away. West Ham manager David Moyes is coming up with some memorable quotes this season, and his comparison of Pep to Blumenthal ahead of their recent fixture against the league leaders was his best yet. Although the egg whisk one was mine.

The stats are frightening; they are top with 62 points and if they do not lose on Tuesday against Wolves, they will equal their longest run without defeat at 27 games.

It's pointless trying to second guess the team news and formation with Guardiola, as he made seven changes recently. Guardiola's latest innovation and curveball has been to use Joao Cancelo as a full-back/midfielder but he was rested for the West Ham game. I remarked once that Pep will one day play a game without a recognised goalkeeper. It might not be too far away.

Santo's switch to a back three is working

I previewed one of Wolves' matches before Christmas, and unfortunately they just do not look the same side without Raul Jiminez, who suffered that awful head injury in the game against Arsenal back in November.

Sitting in 12th however could be considered satisfactory, but I thought at one stage, Nuno Esperito Santo's team potentially looked top six material.

Santo has switched things around, and my colleague Dan Fitch made a point recently previewing the game against Newcastle that reverting to a back three to surrender a bit of firepower has at least steadied results. They earned a point in the 1-1 with the Magpies and it was a classic Wolves sort of performance - not too much going forward but resilient and organised at the back.

Expect another deep-lying back three and they'll have to play on the counter.

Match Odds

I cannot remember the last time I saw Wolves trade at 21.0 to win a match, and that means you are getting a massive 18.0 on the Draw No Bet for the visitors on Tuesday night.

With 20 straight wins in all competitions for the Citizens, the task looks impossible. City haven't dropped a point since 15th December, and their last defeat was against Spurs back in November. Indeed, commenting on the recent run, Guardiola said it was one of the "greatest achievements of our careers". That was the Spaniard's 200th win from 273 matches.

Putting up a 1.2 bet is probably not anyone's idea of excitement, and while I am just about operating level on the P & L, I will shun the temptation of putting up a 20 point win!

There are other avenues to explore of course, although I am slightly defensive in terms of going for some daring handicap bets as Wolves are a decent outfit against "Big Six" teams and are sure to try and keep this as tight as possible - something their back three has been doing of late.

The Half-Time market is one to look at, as City are quite an attractive 1.62 - if those sort of prices excite you. Backing the draw at the break is 2.62, which isn't quite enough of a price to get me in. I wanted around 3.0 or more.

Gundogan a possible for Same Game Multi bet

If you are having a look at the To Score or First Time Goalscorer markets, City are not the easiest. Where as Manchester United have Bruno Fernandes (Fernanch on Fifa 21), and Harry Kane (Kane on Fifa 21), City have had 19 different individual goalscorers this season and two of their defenders popped up with the two goals in the recent 2-1 victory against West Ham.

One man in tremendous form has been Ilkay Gundogan - who has hit 14 thus far in what is arguably the best run of his career. He bagged two against Tottenham and a brace against Liverpool. He can be used in the Same Game Multi with City to win and To Score Anytime which pays 2.34 on the double.

Under price worth taking a chance on

The last time City failed to score in a game was in the EFL Cup back in January, and their CV this season reads nine successes winning by one goal, but two goals or more a huge 25. And that influences the the Under 2.5 price for this which can be backed at 2.32, as I can envisage a 1-0 or 2-0 sort of game.